Next week will be momentous. The marriage amendment bill is due for its third reading in the coming week and looks certain to pass through parliament as legislation. The bill’s sponsor, Labour MP Louisa Wall, declared in the amendment’s second reading back in March that:

“It is not about gay marriage, same-sex marriage, or straight marriage; it is about marriage between two people. There is no distinction to be made—that is equality…to deny trans people, intersex, lesbian, and gay people the right to marry is to deny them recognition as a person” (1).

No I’m not a Labour voter, but I would definitely agree with what Wall postulates. Regardless of religious, political or cultural worldviews, at the core of humanity is the freedom of determination. Everyone has an innate right to participate fully in life, and who am I or anyone else to stop someone from entering into marriage just because they are part of the GLBT community.

Family first director Bob McCoskrie has gathered more than 15,000 web-based pledges against “any electorate MP who supports the bill, and against any party whose leader supports it” (2). Clearly some Kiwis would like to keep marriage in NZ the way it is; though in light of most political polls it is obvious that next week New Zealand will become the 13^th country to ‘legalize love.’ Family first (strong advocates for the Conservative party), proclaim that marriage should consist of ‘one man – one woman’ (3), in which I acknowledge that everyone has the right to freedom of speech.

In light of McCoskrie’s crusade for ‘traditional’ marriage, the efforts will go down in history as nothing more than another evangelical barrier to the GLBT community feeling God’s love. Though, he was the guy that blamed Māori disadvantage on statistics of Māori births out of wedlock (4). It is a shame that so much hurt has been caused by people standing for ‘the greater good’. Though I myself can think of no greater good than to love and accept people as people, I kind of thought that’s what Jesus was about too.

Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

T.K Lewis

Next Tuesday Simon Bridges will attempt to bypass International law (Article 20 of the UDHR) and previous NZ legislative documents (NZ bill of rights act 1990 and the Human rights act 1993) by empowering his amended Crown minerals bill with its third reading.

At the crux of the new law is the politically polarising issue of human rights, as Section 101B outlines how peaceful protest at sea will be made illegal, resulting in hefty fines and imprisonment. Clearly putting all their eggs in one basket, the government’s economic development strategy is heavily influenced by the raping of DOC land and water ways by large overseas corporations. The amended bill was clearly formulated with this in mind, giving international ease of access to companies wishing to prospect and economically exploit areas that are undoubtedly protected regions.

The government’s hope in deep sea oil drilling needs to be squashed, for the amount of environmental risk such a process demands it’s just not worth the small economic leverage promised. The probability of a major oil spill (like the ecological atrocity that occurred off the Mexican Gulf) seems to be an unregistered possibility for the government. There is no doubt that endangered marine life like Maui’s dolphin (in which there is about 55 in the North Island) will be even more at risk when multi-corporate oil tycoons set up shop on NZ shores.

As the minister of energy and resources, Bridges wants his bill to nullify any ‘resistance’ or messy transactions between the NZ government and oil firms in the coming future. But as the past week has shown, Bridges will have a tough battle on his hands; for organisations like Greenpeace are sure to stir up protest for government adherence to human rights (so far over 24,283 people have signed the statement against the bill).

Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

T.K Lewis

Boiling with annoyance and anger I raised my hand, not to embarrass or ridicule Colin (he did that all by himself) but to honour my ancestors and to stand up for authentic race relations in New Zealand. “So…would you say you’re culturally ignorant?” Pausing for a second the Conservative Party leader chuckled before giving me a plethora of nonsense before ending with, “I think we’re all culturally ignorant.”

The public meeting was situated around the current political issue of marriage, though the night only seemed to be worthwhile when the nitty gritty pōwhiri comments Colin earlier made were raised. That’s the thing about politics, once you say something you can’t take it back. Colin defended a Danish politician who had recently visited NZ. I have nothing wrong with people coming to NZ but it was her blatantly racist comments that pissed me off (as well as many other New Zealander’s and Danish people). Well, last night Colin openly defended the far right-wing Marie Krarup, and her comments that the pōwhiri  is an “uncivilized” ritual, and that the marae is a “grotesque” mark of multicultural worship. Two things, not only did Colin continue to dig the racist whole deeper and deeper last night by giving his own chuckling thoughts on Māori, but he continued to amaze me how openly exclusive and narrow minded he was for someone believed to be the defender of NZ Christendom and traditional values.

I just couldn’t believe the verbal diarrhea spilling out of the ‘well-respected’ leader’s mouth. Even his view on the economy and the environment was hardly arguable. I just can’t see why he has a following.

Offended in every which way, my wife and I left wondering WTF LOL, it was so funny and offensive at the same time. Talking to another lady who raised a valid question around Colin’s racist remarks, it was cool to know that not all the room thought I was just some random ‘savage’ wanting to pull out the patu on the Conservative party.

I’d like to end with this statement, ‘NZ is a wonderful place, and though racism is a big issue, I don’t think it is rampant outside of the few fundamentalists and far-right conservatives. NZ is a wonderful place, let’s put a stop to culturally ignorant people being empowered to make national decisions’. Rather let’s look at the bigger picture and come 2014 ask ourselves, “does this person really know what they’re talking about, and does this person actually practice what they preach?”

Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

T.K Lewis